Thursday, October 2, 2008

Tengu is a brand of jerky produced by Tengu Company, Inc., of Santa Fe Springs, CA. The company got its start in 1949, focusing on making frozen foods to satisfy a small but growing demographic of Japanese Americans. It wasn't until 1978 the company decided to start making beef jerky.

In 1988, Tengu was acquired by Nichirei Corporation, a Japan-based company. It's frozen food business was migrated over to another subsidiary company, while Tengu remained solely as a beef jerky manufacturer, with the bulk of products being exported to Japan. In the early 2000s, as the "mad cow" disease scared all of Japan into boycotting US Beef, Tengu's business suffered. Then on December 31, 2007, Nichirei Corporation, dissolved Tengu, and that was that.

If Tengu will be known for anything, it will be this package of Clam Jerky which they introduced in 2003. At the time, it made headlines across the country and was blogged all over the Internet. The fact is that clam jerky had been done long before Tengu tried it, decades before in fact. But it was only something you'd find overseas in asian countries. Tengu was simply the first company that tried to cross it over to American consumers.

You can still find Tengu's products sitting on US store shelves in just a handful of places along the Pacific Coast. But not for long.

I get a strong "fishy" taste right off the bat, followed by the clam flavor, and then followed by a salty flavor. In fact, as soon as I opened the bag, the fishy smell escapes quickly and is easily noticed.

I'd say that clam taste is the predominant flavor of this jerky, and then a dose of salt. That fishy taste isn't too bad, once the clam flavors kick in. The saltiness is rather strong, and after several pieces it starts wearing me out.

As for the other seasonings, it's hard to notice them. I can maybe pick up some pepper taste, but that's really about it.

It still has a fresh taste overall, or at least it doesn't taste like its spoiled. I think this stuff might actually be better dropped into a bowl of hot clam chowder, instead of putting in those oyster crackers.

Meat Consistency

This appears to be real pieces of clam, basically from the "foot".

Despite the package claiming to be "new soft style", this stuff is hard. It's actually crunchy similar to peanut brittle, except it softens up in my mouth and gets a little chewy.

Overall, it's somewhat easy to eat mainly because it's brittle enough to break into small pieces, and because you can pop a whole piece into your mouth. But still being hard, it doesn't quite lend itself to being snackable.

Product Value

I paid $4.09 for this 1.6 ounce package at a 99 Ranch Market in Irvine, CA. That works out to a price of $2.56 per ounce, making this an expensive buy.

For general jerky snacking purposes, it's a fair buy. It's got plenty of flavor, and you can get a strong clam taste, but it's not exactly fun to eat with its hard brittle pieces, and strong saltiness.

As a clam jerky, I'd suppose it's a good value because you definitely get lots of natural clam flavor.

Rating

I'm giving this a fair rating.

I have to credit the folks at Tengu for packing in a lot of clam flavor into this jerky, but that's really all your getting here, aside from a strong salt flavor. I'm not sure Americans want to eat dried clam for the sake eating clam, however. At least I don't. I'd be more interested in this if they could add some other taste interest, like hot sauce, or wasabi.

Still, for those folks who want lots of clam flavor, maybe this is your thing (or at least until supplies disappear from store shelves). For myself, this comes across as being rather tiring, and I'm losing interest fast.

You'll definitely need to get some strong breath freshener afterwards.

For my beer recommendation, try something with roasted malt, like a brown ale.

Hi Steve, if you can find a bag of Tengu brand BEEF jerky, I'd be very interested to hear what you have to say about it. Tengu has always been my favorite brand of jerky, and ever since they went out of business, I've been looking far and wide for a worthy replacement, but none have come even CLOSE. The flavor, texture, snackability of their jerky was by far the gold standard, at least in my book. I've been scouring ebay for a bag, but no luck yet. If I find a bag, I'll send you a couple of precious pieces to review.

Even when Tengu beef jerky is way past it's freshness date it's still the VERY BEST beef jerky I have EVER HAD IN MY 49 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!If I was a man I may consider giving up one of my ---- for the recipe!YES IT'S THAT GOOD ! And I would be one of 1000's who would LOVE to see it back on the market.KelleyViolasgalkel@hotmail

My favorite thing about Tengu beef jerky was that IT WASN'T FULL OF FREAKING SUGAR! Seriously, the lowest sugar I've ever found from anyone else (mainstream, at least) was 4g/serving; Tengu was ONE. (Don't get me started on Oberto.) The Japanese grocery down the street from my college used to stock it, and I hung on to an empty bag for ages, hoping I could use info on it to get hold of more. Maybe someone at a "legacy brands" company can get hold of the recipe? Until then, I'll be making my own....

More Jerky Sites

About Best Beef Jerky

I'm Steve Johnson, and I've been in the Internet marketing and publishing business since 1997. I've been a life-long fan of beef jerky and decided to merge my profession with my snack food of choice, and gave birth to Best Beef Jerky.

I review beef jerky, turkey jerky, bison jerky, pretty much any meat jerky, even vegan jerky. I review meat sticks, biltong, cecina, carne seca, it's all fair game as long as it's meat, it's dried, and it's a snack.